Friday, January 22, 2016

After a short break away from the studio, I'm back to work, excited with what the future holds. I have planning on larger paintings have already begun preparing canvases for them. To get me into the feel of things I put this old painting back up on the easel and giving it another shot.

Being away from this painting has made me look at it with fresh eyes and I'm applying things I learned on smaller work this year. This linen has more texture than what I'm used to, and although I was having a hard time dealing with that throughout last year, I didn't seem to mind it this week.

I'm enjoying the way this linen grabs paint, I can't wait to see how far I can push the textures in the foreground of this landscape.

I have done more work on the clouds as well, softening some areas and adding more texture on others. These are really bad picture under bad studio light, so not the best example but it gives you an idea. More to come.

Friday, January 15, 2016

Last night was the opening reception for my solo exhibition at Dacia Gallery, Magnetudinem. It was an incredible night and I was very moved throughout as I saw many friends and family come out to support my painting. A big thank you to everyone who came out in the cold to be a part of this big night. A bigger thank you to Lee Vasu and Damian Salo for providing a great platform such as Dacia Gallery and for believing in my work. For those who were not able to make but did take the time to send me congratulatory messages, I also thank you from the bottom of my heart. I will always remember this night and I'm happy you were all a part of it. Below are some photos from the night. Cheers to the future everyone!

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

It has been an exciting week of monotype printing, a week that not only allowed me to make six landscapes but also allowed me to share the experience with my friends Robert and Kyle (both painters). It was not a surprise to find out they both enjoyed it so much that they came multiple nights to the Salmagundi Club to crank the handle of the press. I had warned them that it can get very addicting, I don't think they were ready to find out just how much this statement would prove to be true!

Robert tried it once lat month and has not been able to talk about anything other than monotypes. He even bought a press and is eagerly awaiting it's arrival in April. He took the addiction to a whole other level! I guess we can say he was ready for this one week long marathon of printing nights.

This week also allowed me to familiarize myself with sepia color ink. On the first night I remember being scared that the prints would not turn out as I imagined them. When applying the ink to the plate it would go down very thin, the transparency was making the color read more like a transparent orange iron oxide, which in oil paint is a great color for glazing but when printed on paper I thought it would come out bright orange. To my surprise it did not. The printed color was just what I was looking for.

The sepia ink retained the moodiness of my previous monotypes but I believe it has also added a certain glow that I was not achieving with black ink. Using a light grey paper also helped neutralize the color of the ink while it's complementary blue undertone helped the print come alive.

I am pleased to announce my one man exhibition at Dacia Gallery. The exhibition of fifteen paintings spanning from 2013-15 opens tomorrow and it will be up for two weeks. If you are in NYC and have some time please stop by and take a look at what I've been up in the last two years. Thank you to Dacia Gallery for this incredible opportunity and honor, and to my supporters who have seen my work develop through the last eleven years since I moved to New York.

These are the two prints from last night. I decided to try sepia ink on warm light grey paper, so far I'm liking this, it reminds me of 17th century prints and drawings. I will be going back to print some more tonight, hopefully I can get three done this time around!

Monday, January 04, 2016

2016 has started out on the right foot! As usual Jarod and I escape the craziness of the city for a more quiet setting, and thanks to our friend Brian we have a nice little oasis in the Hudson Valley. On New Years Eve we stayed in and cooked a nice meal and enjoyed each others company with some wine and bubbly. Not a bad idea!

We had a beautiful New Year's Day brunch with friends, which is always a guaranteed good time. Food was great and more bubbly to go around.

Good company, good friends, a nice book to read by the fireplace, and time to draw; it all sounds like good way to start the year. As I had mentioned in a previous post, I will be showing a painting in February at Prince Street Gallery, something exciting to look forward to. Unexpectedly, I get a call letting me know that I am one of the top three finalists to be awarded a solo show at a popular Lower East Side gallery!

Back to doing more sketches, and let the juices flow! I have to get more work done this year, and these sketches will help with future paintings and also with the four nights of monotypes I will be doing this week. Only a few days into the new year and lots of things going on.

The crowning moment came last night, when waiting for takeout I get the final email from Dacia Gallery…I was awarded the solo exhibition which opens on Saturday! No time to waste, I spent part of my night varnishing recent work which I'm excited to exhibit. More details about this exhibition to come very soon, stay tuned for that. In all, I'm having an incredible 2016 already and there are other things in the works that will make it a big year. Hopefully there will be more exhibitions and chances to show my work to a bigger audience. Happy New Year to all, 2016 will be a good year!

About Me

"Anything under the sun is beautiful if you have the vision-it is the seeing of the thing that makes it so."
- Charles W. Hawthorne -
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"One of the functions of art is to remind us of common humanity. The artist, like the priest, can sometimes remind us that we are bound by an obligation to one another stronger and more lasting than the bonds of politics or economics."
- John Manchip White, Diego Velazquez: Painter and Courtier -
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"To defend an artist as original says little about his work except that it is in some way different from what preceded it. As such, originality itself is rarely a strong defense, for it is born more of admiration for audacity and perseverance than necessarily of understanding." - James H. Rubin, Manet's Silence and the Poetics of Bouquets -